My NaNoWriMo Prep 2017

Happy Sunday to you all, I hope you are all resting and recharging your energies for the week to come 🙂

For those of you who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it’s a National Novel Writing Month (which takes place every year in November), where a bunch of people all around the world tries to write a novel of 50K words in 30 days. Nano is only 10 more days away (according to my sidebar counter hehe) and with the huge holiday we had here, and my mom’s doctor appointments, this month will fly by even faster.

This will be my 9th or 10th year of doing NaNo and even though I had to quit last year due to my mom’s health issues, I do hope that this year I will be able to finish.

I did make some great tips and NaNo prep a while back, and you can find them here and here. But this year I really wanted to share with you what I am doing these last days and how I prepare myself for NaNo (even with a busy schedule).

So here are the main things I do to prepare myself for NaNo

Writing an outline

If you don’t have any idea what to write, just brainstorm ideas and pick one that you liked the most 🙂

For me, I know what I am writing… So I am doing a full detailed outline, as detailed as possible. I guess that this outline will be around 30-40 pages, lol. I have already started today, so I have 10 days to finish my outline and prepare everything else I might need.

Cleaning and organizing my space

My desk tends to get messy, a lot and very fast, lol. So I am going to clean my entire space, which is our spare room where I have my desk, our washer and dryer, our closets, printer and a few more bits here and there. So, I need to reorganize it and clean it. Making sure I have an inviting space to write in.

Writing a few pages

In a few days, I will start writing just a few pages, this way I will have a good place to start from and I won’t get overwhelmed. It really helps me see my project better and what I want to write, so when NaNo starts I am not stuck and can immediately continue writing. It’s just helping me not fall into the writer’s block trap 😀

Picking up a nice notebook, pens, and even an app

Usually, before NaNo starts, I pick a good notebook and my favorite pens and I take them with me everywhere in my bag. However, due to a busy schedule with my mom, I learned to use my phone for writing – a lot.

I love to clear out some space on my phone’s screen that only has my writing app and a timer (or the widgets) and I choose that screen as my home screen. This helps me to see my writing all the time on my phone and keeps me motivated to write and not get stuck.

I loved sharing with you how I prepare for NaNo and I hope it helped in any way 🙂 If you enter NaNo, how do you prepare for that? Share with us what are you going to do, in order to prepare yourself for NaNoWriMo 🙂

Thank you so much for reading and don’t forget to add me as a NaNo buddy ❤

Good thoughts for you completing the NaNoWriMo this year. The outline prep for me is a must in everyday book writing. Once I got the story elements structured (25 pages) I began to write the chapters. I’m too slow for NaNo, but I’ll write more in November. That’s my plan. 🌷 Christine

I wish you lots of luck this year, Galit. It sounds as though you’ll be starting a completely new project, so fingers crossed you won’t need to drop out. Are you still editing your other books? I thought you had at least one almost ready for publishing, but I might have got that wrong. 🙂

Aww ❤ Thank you so much 🙂
Yeah I am. My children’s book is almost done editing and will be ready soon for beta readers 🙂 and my last book I am working with an editor, so I hope to finish that as well, lol.
I had one that was ready to go to an editor and I am working with one now 😀 It’s hard but nice.
Btw, books… When I will get to read the third book or did I miss it (with the year I had so far, it can happen, lol)?

I’ve had an awful year, Galit, which is why I’ve not been on my blog much. One of our daughters has had breast cancer and recently our youngest son picked up pneumonia on his word travels! We have also had other serious family issues to deal with, too, so we cancelled holidays we had planned abroad. (There’s always next year!) All in all, we’ve been all over the place and my writing has been almost non-existent until this last couple of months. I hope to have Book 3 finished by Christmas and sending off for editing. I’m ready to start something different now. Hope all goes well with your books and I’ll be sure to read them once they’re published. 🙂 Hope my rambling makes sense! 😀 ❤

Oh wow hun, I am so sorry. It’s good that you took time to help and heal the family. I almost done nothing this year in my editing due to my mom’s cancer and treatment so I know how hard it is. But for me being there for my family is much more important than anything (even writing), so it’s really good that you took that time away from everything and I hope when all is well, you’ll have a bit time on your hands to write and blog 😀
Thank you so much hun, I do hope it will go into the world soon ❤

What a lovely comment, Galit. I’m also so sorry I didn’t realise that you had cancer, too. I thought it was your mom who was very ill. Cancer’s a nasty thing but if caught in the earlier stages, it can be fought! the chemotherapy is tough, but can be a life-saver in the end. Our daughter has just finished chemo and radio therapy and her hair, eyelashes and eyebrows are starting to grow again. Things are looking good and we’re all so relieved. Our son who caught pneumonia while on another trip abroad for wok almost left it too late to get treatment. He was so ill, and was told if he’d left it another couple of hours he wouldn’t have survived. He’s now on the mend.
I can only hope your story is as successful as our daughter’s, Galit. I’m very impressed you’ve managed to get any writing done at all. We never know what life will dish out to us – which is, perhaps, just as well. Do look after yourself. ❤

Oh my gosh hun (sorry) not me… My mom.
She was in the hospital for 2 month for radiations and chemo and after that a few more times of chemo and more hospitals. It was a hard year but she is strong and so is her body.
Yeah I know. My mom’s her started grow back as well.
I am so happy that your daughter is getting stronger and that she is out of danger ❤
That sounds really scary with your son, I am so happy he got treatment in time.
My Addison’s was a bit hard this year on me with all the stress but I didn’t need any hospital this year which was a good thing for me.
Life is hard and being able to write at times gives me tons of joy… I just wish I had more of that time 😀